Hagg Gill Pot
Tuesday September 11th 2012
Members present: Catherine Moody, Christina Cartaciano, Marion Holloway
Report by Marion Holloway
After lots of faff in the morning we made it to Grassington for lunch in a little cafe before heading off to Hagg Gill. We got to the “farm” to ask for permission to access the cave about 2:30 pm but no one was home and it looked more like holiday homes than a real farm, so we gave up and decided to just go for it. We then realised we hadn’t set call out and no one had signal, so off we headed, back down the road towards Grassington until we found signal in Kettlewell (about half the way back to Grassington). Once call out was set with Andy, we headed back down towards the cave. It took a couple of drive-bys before we found the parking spot described in Selected Caves. Cow Garth Barn is in no way different to the other 20 odd barns dotted up and down the road, apart from the fact that it is right on the other side of the river bank.
We got changed in a slightly chilly breeze, patched up some oversuits with Jaffa tape and built some helmet and light combos (not from scratch sadly...). Then we headed up the (rather steep) hill to the cave. It was fairly easy to find by following the description in SC. The rigging of the ladder, however, posed more of a problem. Other clubs’ trips suggested that we should rig the ladder from the top of the scaffolding, but it looked like it would have been easier to start just above the constriction. Cat eventually found some suitable gaps in the rock around the scaffolding and set up the ladders which looked ominously long. We ran out of slings for the belay, so we used Cat’s safety link wrapped around a scaff bar to secure it. By this time it was gone 5 o’clock... this was definitely the faffiest trip I’ve ever been on!
I went down first to sort out the ladder and send it through the constriction whilst Cat belayed me. I got the whole thing in a complete tangle beneath my feet and spent about ten minutes angrily trying to sort it out. Ladder in place, I squeezed down the constriction and slowly made my way down the ladder. This is where I learnt quite how poor my ladder technique is, as my arms were killing me, just going down! I was not looking forward to the long climb back up...
Guam quickly followed me down the ladder, although apparently she took a bit of persuading! Cat then tried to send the stop down to me to belay her, but I couldn’t hear her shouting over the roar of the water and so she self-belayed down instead.
We headed upstream, following the water most of the way. We passed a couple of fun climbs, where I taught Guam the “straddle and hump the rock” climbing technique. She appeared to be pretty practised in it already! ;) We went up a weird backwards wriggle and one final climb and ended up in a beautiful chamber full of straws. It was one of the most beautifully decorated places I’ve ever seen caving, definitely worth a visit for anyone who hasn’t been, but certainly not good for freshers who might break or damage the formations.
After a quick break admiring the straws we headed back down stream to the main chamber. By the time we got back it was about quarter to eight, so we decided it was definitely time to head out. Cat went up first and hauled up the tackle bags. Then Guam went up as I danced around the bottom of the pitch to try and keep warm. Finally it was my turn... and I was dreading it. I got about halfway up the pitch and my arms just gave up on me. I literally couldn’t move them. So I rested on the end of the rope again and again, trying to get the blood to flow back into them. I made it up the next few metres and stood on a ledge looking down over the hole for about five minutes while I tried to get some feeling back. Finally I made my way slowly up to and through the constriction and then out into the darkness. We hauled up the rope and ladders, packed them away and headed back down the hill.
A quick and rainy change later we were on our way to Skipton, where it turned out Bodrums is closed on Tuesday nights, so we went to the takeaway next door which did, pizzas kebabs and curry! We munched away and headed sleepily back to York in time to drop Guam off at the station for half past midnight before heading to the container and finally home to bed.
In short, this is a brilliant trip, well worth the visit and even on our side of the Dales!
